Chasing The Tour | Stage 15 – Fédrigo Plays Them Perfectly

Pierrick Fédrigo won stage 15 into Pau by outwitting his five breakaway companions to take his fourth TdF win. The last time the Tour was here in Pau was in 2010, and the stage was also won by Fédrigo in a breakaway. In fact, all three other Tour de France stages he's won have been in very similar situations: In a later stage of the Tour when the GC settles down he gets in a small breakaway, he uses up his fellow escapees to perfection, and he succeeds in a small sprint. Today when he came across the finish, he hardly looked surprised.

On stage 16 in 2010 (Bagnères-de-Luchon to Pau, 199.5km) he won in a 9 man breakaway including Lance Armstrong in a small bunch kick.

On stage 9 in 2009 (Saint-Gaudens – Tarbes, 160.5 km) he won in a similar manner as today. A four man breakaway narrowed down to two which he won over Pellizotti in a one-on-one kick to the finish

On stage 14 in 2006 (Montélimar – Gap 230 km) five riders broke away including Fédrigo. Three of the escapees crashed on a descent and two had to abandon. Fedrigo and Salvatore Commesso were the only ones to barely stay away and managed to keep ahead of the chasing peloton by 3 seconds. Fredrigo easily outsprints Commesso.

In today’s stage a very familiar scenario played out for Pierrick Fédrigo. A six man breakaway manages to stick and a couple of attacks with approximately 8km to go prompted Fédrigo to counter and Vande Velde went with him. The two cooperated until the finish which Vande Velde had no chance in winning against Fédrigo’s strong sprint.

In breakaway finishes such as these, every single rider is thinking to himself about how he can play to his own strengths and how he’s going to get rid of the others. Out of the six in the lead group, Devenyns was the only one who hasn’t won a Tour stage. They’re all increadibly good riders.

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“Always attack as late as you can, but before the others do.” – Tim Krabbe, The Rider

This is exactly what Fédrigo did. The first attack from the lead group came from Sorensen with 10km to go but he was quickly chased down by the five other escapees. Another surge at 8.5km remaining prompted Fedrigo to take his opportunity to counter attack and he took Vande Velde with him. Perfect situation for Fédrigo. Vande Velde is the slowest sprinter in the bunch but one of the best time trialists to help Fédrigo to the finish. If it had been, Dumoulin, the best sprinter in the break, we might have seen Fédrigo sit up and wait for another opportunity.

The two riders cooperated all the way to the finish and Vande Velde didn’t even appear to contest the sprint. Once again, Fédrigo wins another Tour stage in a small breakaway. He couldn’t have played it any better.

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Bicycle racing is a sport of patience. Racing is licking your opponent’s place clean before starting on your own.” – Gerrie Knetemann by Tim Krabbe, The Rider

It’s a rest day tomorrow and I can’t express how much I’m looking forward to it. A rest day doesn’t necessarily mean a day of R&R when you’re chasing the Tour. It means laundry, a sleep-in, a decent meal, and hopefully even a short bike ride. On second though, I’ll ditch everything except for the bike ride…

Stage 15 Photos

A team sky fan at the finish line in Pau with a Bradley Wiggins mask on

Pierrick Fedrigo’s nickname is “le nez de Marmande” (The nose of Marmande) due to his remarkable nose.

Vande Velde couldn’t come past Fédrigo’s slipstream to challenge him for the win

The best seats in the house for watching the finish of Stage 15 in Pau.

At ~55kms into the stage we finally begin to see the successful break take place right at this moment.

The peloton strung out in a single file as there were perpetual attacks for the opening 55km until the breakaway got established

The freshly made waffles are the best thing in the Tour Village before every stage

Seems there is a bit of boredom settling in with the fans. The way Sky rides, the early losses or exits of GC guys ( Hesjedal, Sanchez, Gesink, no Andy, no Alberto) and the course design so far made some good races for stage wins, but the battle for GC is not really happening, especially with maybe the strongest climber riding for his leader. Hopefully the next two stages will shake things up. Another two mountain days of breakaways battling for the stage and GC guys following the Sky train without being able to attack seriously would be kind of a sad script for the biggest race in the world. Cadel seems to lack form, so its really only Nibali and VDB left to put up a fight. Somehow i hope Pinot can pull out a deGendt kind of ride, but he might be too young to do that.

jules

great analysis CT. i love watching these breakaways and how the riders play off each other. i felt sorry for Demoullin though – Phil L was lamenting how the others worked him over as they feared his sprint. it seems Pedrigo benefited by flying under the radar a bit.

Atganirider

Can I add my name to the huge list of folk praising your work?

It’s very interesting to get a different perspective than that of the Uk press

Wiggins success is down to his hard work and, of course, a great team, including some brilliant Aussies

Atganirider

First to stop to try to aid Cadel after the tack outrage was my near neighbour, Steve Cumings

Imagine how delighted the majority of your readers would be if Cadel’s name was substituted for Bradley’s…

As I said, it’s good to get a different perspective, but I’m pleased it’s a “dull” Tour

JM

Fair call Atganirider! Let our local Francophile Gabriel Gate give you a taste of local cycling culture down here in Melbourne http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8LK9pLZsi8

eatmorelard

I don’t think anyone is questioning the hard work that Sky have done to get themselves where they are. It just doesn’t make for exciting racing. They set such a furious pace on the climbs (which in itself is admirable) that you get the feeling that any attack is never going to stick. Richie or Mick or Froome keep cracking along on the front and the attack is slowly pulled back in.

Anytime someone goes up the road I sit there and think to myself “how many minutes before they are dragged back?”. I’m not criticising Sky for it but the other teams need to work out how to break the cycle and they don’t have many stages left to do it!

jules

the only chance is fatigue – dodger and porte can’t keep pulling the peloton along at full pace forever. if nibali or hopefully cadel are saving up for the 3rd week, it could break open a bit in the pyrenees.

or froome could rip out his ear piece and attack, neutralising the sky train. we can only hope :)

Anonymous

Its a great tactic to win, but its so clinical and mathematical that it doesn’t make good viewing. As a team though to execute that kind of preparation is pretty amazing and hats off to them.

mutex

Newbie here, I’ve a question – Are the front and rear wheels of the bikes interchangeable ? If so, couldn’t Cadel Evans rear wheel been exchanged with his teammates front wheel ?

Mark

Nope, you can’t put a rear wheel on the front or a front on the rear because the cassette (the cogs for the gears) are attached to the rear wheel.

mutex

Thanks !

Joshua McDougall

Short answer: No. Front and Rear are not interchangeable.

Abdu

That first photo is the Commissaire who docked Gossy the 30 points isn’t it…?

Paolo

No. Gossy docked himself 30 points with not being able to ride his bicycle in a straight line.

Bracks_ashat

Paolo, if there’s one thing I’ve learnt at my stay here at CT, its that you never question/mock Abdu’s posts. He will brutally humiliate you in the most amazing sense of humor.

Abdu

That first photo is the Commissaire who docked Gossy the 30 points isn’t it…?

Robert Merkel

OGE can’t be entirely happy with last night’s stage – didn’t get to sprint for the stage, and didn’t have anybody in the break either.

Timo

Like the other teams; they have given up. All the big prizes are gone. Seems the tour is just ~150 guys riding leisurely to Paris.

Robert Merkel

The first hour wasn’t exactly leisurely. The attempts to get away and the determination with which they were chased down looked like a particularly vicious A grade crit at Port Melbourne.

Sean Doyle

Apparently Matty White decided to rest them as they want to get through to the end with as many riders as possible. Probably aiming for the Champs win.

diamondjim

Sorensen was dangling about 30 secs behind the break for what seemed like forever. He had a chat with team car, and soon afterwards the rest of Saxo/Tinkoff started pulling on the front of the peleton. Phil and Paul speculated it was because Sorensen wasn’t going to catch the break. It occurred to me that it would make much more sense for the break to wait for Sorensen (causing S/T to stop chasing, as their man was then in the break) than to be caught by the peleton. No doubt the DS’s could see this on TV.
I didn’t see or hear any analysis of this, but after the next ad break, Sorensen was safely in the break and S/T had disappeared back into the peleton.
Any thoughts, or did anyone hear about this (eg. on a non Phil and Paul broadcast)?

Yep, this is more or less what happened – Dave Harmon and Sean Kelly on Eurosport talked about it quite a bit. Saxo-Tinkoff basically bullied the break into letting Sorensen in by threatening to shut the whole thing down altogether if they didn’t.

Quite nice to see the team radios have an interesting tactical impact on the race for a change…

Eltham

That’s exactly what happened I was surprised Phil and Paul didn’t pick that up

The inside word is that all the sprinters teams are not happy with Liquigas since they hold the green jersey and they haven’t been on the front the whole Tour. Yesterday was an example of the sprinter teams basically in a deadlock. OGE and LB started to chase but sat up since they’re not going to work for another Sagan win.

diamondjim

Alasdair, Eltham – thanks for the feedback. Must start watching Eurosport – Phil & Paul’s commentary frequently seems lacking these days.
CT – that’s interesting, and goes some way to explaining why the break wasn’t chased down on a day that seemed tailor-made for sprinters. The only commentary I’d heard or read was that the peleton was tired, it was scorching hot, and there are no major prizes up for grabs. Notwithstanding the crazy first 2 hours, it seems that 30c is relatively cool for the south of France in July, and the only prize that OGE can still win is a stage. It’s not the Maillot Vert, but it’s nothing to be sneezed about and could save the Tour for OGE.

The inside word is that all the sprinters teams are not happy with Liquigas since they hold the green jersey and they haven’t been on the front the whole Tour. Yesterday was an example of the sprinter teams basically in a deadlock. OGE and LB started to chase but sat up since they’re not going to work for another Sagan win.

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